Certain stories make your ears tingle, capture your attention and make you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Since childhood, I have heard certain stories from my original native country, Ghana. Many of these stories are real, like that of Okomfo Anokye, who danced and chanted down the golden stool from heaven.

Since the golden stool is still available in the Ashanti Kingdom and the sword he planted and said no one can pull it out, still stands at the place, there is no room to say that the stories are untrue.

I still think about this story, because I don’t know if it’s true or false. A hunter went hunting for a deer to feed his family. It was very sunny, as usual in tropical Africa. Tired and thirsty, he leaned his back against a tree, as he sits in the shade of a very big tree. Adjacent him, he witnessed something he had never experienced in his entire life as a professional hunter.

The hunter was treated to a dramatic fight between two deadly snakes. The fight which lasted over thirty minutes resulted in the death of one of the snakes. The hunter wasn’t sure if the snake was actually dead or was in coma because the creature was lifeless and every effort of the other snake to revive the dead reptile or bring it back to life was futile.

The live snake abandoned its lifeless opponent and went into the bush. Less than a minute the reptile emerged from the bush with a leaf in its mouth and inserted into the mouth of the dead snake, then suddenly the creature woke up and the two retreated into the bush. The amazed hunter tried to find the leaf the snake brought to wake the dead, but his search yielded to fruitless result.

He was totally disappointed and frustrated, as the wise snake didn’t leave behind a piece of the leaf for him to identify what that magic leaf was. Could that leaf wake up a dead body? That was the question spinning in his mind. This is more than a mystery. God will never reveal everything to man because of greed. The rich would have bought everything to live forever and the poor man would never get the chance to enjoy a second life.

In 1832, the Scottish merchant McGregor Laird led an expedition to the Niger Valley and out of 48 people that accompanied on the expedition, 37 lost their lives. These experiences led to the belief that Europeans could not survive in coastal West Africa, which came to be known as ‘The White Man’s Grave.’ Because Europeans noticed that Africans survived much better in the region from these fevers. Despite malaria killing many Africans as well, they acquired resistance to malaria in their childhood, baffling European physicians.

The loss of 37 expeditioners not only revealed that Europeans can’t settle in Africa that time but also demanded how Africans had been able to survive on that harsh continent of deadly malaria? From generation to generation, ancestors pass on their expertise in herbal medicine preparations to families. One of Africa’s powerful concoctions against malaria is prepared from leaves of a neem tree.

The neem tree, biological name (Azadirachta indica) is a unique tree, and the leaves are the most complex leaves on the planet. The neem tree has over 130 different biologically an active compound. The trees grow in tropical and semi-tropical regions.

About the Neem Tree:

Neem (Azadirachta indica) is a tree in the mahogany family. Native to India and throughout Southeast Asia, neem trees grows in tropical and semi-tropical regions. The neem tree grows quickly and can reach heights over 100 ft tall. With its surprising variety of uses and benefits, the neem tree is known as the ‘cure of sickness’ in West Africa, because of its extreme bitterness.

The main components of neem leaves include protein (7.1%), carbohydrates (22.9%), minerals, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin C, and carotene. But the leaves also contain glutamic acid, tyrosine, aspartic acid, alanine, praline, glutamine and cystine-like amino acids, and several fatty acids. Without toothpaste or brush, a piece of chewed neem tree gives a clean teeth brush and fresh mouth each morning. Another life-saving tree is the Kuntan tree (Uapacca Guiniensis.) The cover of the tree was used to treat fractured bones.

Enjoying corn porridge without sugar

The miracle berry or fruit , known as Asaba in the central region of Ghana, serves sugar because it contains a protein called miraculin that tastes sweet enough to replicate the effect of sugar.

There was no sugar, yet our ancestors enjoyed herbal tea and corn meal porridge. A plant which bears small reddish fruit, called miracle fruit, serves as a substitute for sugar. The fruit contains a protein called miraculin that tastes sweet enough to replicate the effect of sugar. After eating berry fruit, everything sour, such as lemon or vinegar tastes sweet in the mouth.

Africa is endowed with many plants that can be used for medicinal. Some of the herbs heal high blood pressure, skin diseases, sore throat, arthritis, digestive problems etc. Many of the drugs consumed throughout the world for health purposes, were manufactured from herbs taken from Africa and Asia because those herbs grow in tropical countries. For example, African ginger is a very powerful medicine.

Many around the world wonder how Africans live, especially those in the villages without electricity. Frankly speaking, there is everything available to make life easy for them just like those living in modern cities. Before health centers were built our ancestors deliver babies at home successfully and the child’s umbilical cord was treated with herbal medicine.

Food Preservation in Africa

Have you ever wonder how Africans preserved food without electricity? If there is no electricity, there wouldn’t be any fridge or storage facilities but food is best preserved in such a way that it doesn’t get rotten. With smoldering wood, generating intensive heat, which adds a layer of desiccation to preserving qualities, fish, meat and other sea foods are smoked. The heat of the fire dehydrates all the liquid from the fish or meat and makes it last longer without rotten.

Salt and the sun also play a major role in traditional food preservation in Africa. For example, fish are well preserved with salt and Cocoa beans are spread in the sun to dry for many days, before they are exported or used to manufacture cocoa products, such as chocolates, drinks, beverages and body lotions consumed locally.

Fish smoking is one of the oldest traditional ways of food preservation in Ghana.

The Palm Tree: The Subsistence Of Life In Africa

Below is a link to another article revealing the traditional life in Africa.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Scriptures, Jesus resurrected from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. The story of the coming of the Messiah to earth is genuine, as prophesied years ago, by some prophets, but did the Saviour really died on the cross?

Even though the cross is loved and respected by thousands of Christians worldwide, true Christians are far away from the cross and have nothing to do with it. How can that be? One significant reason is Jesus didn’t die on the cross. The Greek translates ‘Cross’ – ‘Stau-ros’. This means that an upright pole or stake. The Companion Bible states that ‘Stau-ros’ never means two pieces of wood or timber placed across one another at any angle.

Hermann Fulda’s book ‘The Cross and the Crucifixion’ states that Trees weren’t available everywhere at the public places chosen for execution, so a single beam was sunk into the ground. On this beam, outlaws hands are raised and often with the feet are bound or nailed. To confirm the truth that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, the Apostle Paul said:

Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the law, by becoming cursed instead of us, because it is written “Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake (tree-King James Version)” Galatians 3:13. At Deuteronomy 21:22, Paul’s quote clearly refers to a stake, not a cross. Since anyone who dies on a pole, beam, stick, wood, tree etc; is cursed, it wouldn’t be appropriate for Christians or churches to decorate walls or homes with cross symbols.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits, the cross is found in both pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures. It was rather linked to pagan sex rites. Above all, the scriptures also warn against all kinds of idolatry. (Exodus 20:4, 5; 1 Corinthians 10:14) With such good reasons, true Christians don’t use the cross in worship. One of those churches which have nothing to do with the cross is ‘The Jehovah Witness.’

I understand the reason worldwide; many are fighting very hard to protect our environment because all of us depend on the global ecological system as human beings. Our environment matters so much that pollution and deforestation are discouraged to make life worth living.

Trees for ages provide human beings life’s essentials, such food, oxygen, shelter, tools, and medicine. In Africa and Asia, there is a particular tree called ‘The Palm Tree’ which nothing of it is wasted. The palm tree is indeed a magic tree which may have multiple products than any tree in the world. Because of its multiple products tree plays a major role in sustaining the economy of many countries locally for consumption and internationally through export.

Malaysia and Indonesia dominate world’s production of palm products and in West Africa, oil palm is cultivated in West Africa, especially in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. How do you classify a tree which produces, two different kinds of oil, palm red oil, and palm kernel oil, broom, soap, margarine, Candle etc.

Product Five: A palm tapper tapping fresh palm wine from the palm tree. Fermented palm wine can also be used to brew fresh sweet flavour home Moonshine.

Cream extracted from palm fruit produces palm nut soup, usually eaten with fufu, mixture of pounded cassava and plantain. This food is mostly eaten in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The picture shows a white lady having a taste.

There are more products the palm tree can manufacture, such as margarine, soap, medicine to ease coughing, body creams and lubricants . The hardcover of the nut is widely used by goldsmiths in a furnace to melt gold and iron ore, because of its high temperature. Palm products are always available at African and Asian supermarkets.

Finally, the branches of a palm tree are also used to produce traditional sweeping broom. Broom sweeps our compound in both villages and our houses. What else can I call the palm tree? It’s truly a magic.

Children sweeping their compound with locally manufactured brooms in Africa.